ITC plans to create a trust through
which business enterprises, both in the private and public sector, can contribute to
provide a range of critical services to the Indian farmer.
Announcing this during his keynote address
at the FICCI conference on "Rural Marketing and Communications" on Thursday, ITC
chairman
Y. C. Deveshwar said ITC planned an
investment of more than Rs 1,000 crore in rural India. Mr. Deveshwar sought the
participation of other Indian corporates, who are also stakeholders in the economic
development of rural India, to come forward to support ITC’s broader rural economic
development initiative and use the communication infrastructure that ITC has created
through the e-Choupal project for transforming rural India.
He said ITC planned to cover 1,00,000
villages, or one-sixth of rural India, under the e-Choupal network over the next five
years. Through the power of Information Technology, e-Choupal was empowering the smallest
of individual farmers with knowledge and services, and connecting them to the most
affluent Indian and global markets.
Mr. Deveshwar pointed out in order to
maintain the growth rates in India’s rural economy and fuel an 8% rise in GDP, it was
imperative for corporate to focus on increasing the rural pie rather than indulge in
competitive marketing to gain a larger share of the same pie.
He said the heady growth rates was
witnessed in the rural economy during the Eighties and early Nineties were no longer
sustainable unless all stakeholders, and particularly Indian corporates interested in
tapping the existing purchasing power potential among farmers, walk the extra mile in
participating in holistic rural development. The dictates should be to create a more
robust all round rural economy, rather than skimming the cream off the top layer in rural
India to meet immediate sales targets.
